It’s Latin, means Dog Eats Dog. The motto that is used in Bullworth Academy. Welcome to the deepest shit hole you could find in the education world. The game was created by Rockstar Game, the same game developer who also designed the GTA Series.
Bully aka Canis Canem Edit offers a quite broad adventure game. You can do a lot of things, and it gives you an endless gameplay and gaming experience. You’ll play as Jimmy Hopkins, a broken home kid who had been expelled from many high schools because his ‘charming’ attitude. His first year in Bullworth is tough. Help the nerds to get their books from lockers and they might get friendly with you, but the bullies will try to kick your sorry ass even more.
The game itself is cool. It will record just about anything you do in it. The number of sodas you drank, the distance you traveled by foot, the numbers of art class you’ve skipped, etc. You can sneak into the girl’s dorm, and do your own business there. Or lockpick some lockers, maybe the one that is owned by that hot chick you’ve been watching, where you can steal her pinky underwears LOL. Just joking! But it’s true that you can do some lockpicking to the lockers in the school. And you can steal things inside them such as clothes, slingshot, marbles or even textbook (who the f*ck steals textbook these days?)
However, as it always happen in this fair life (FYI: I’m not being sarcastic this time hehehe), the game itself has created some debating topics. Many people or gamers –like myself- think that this game is cool. Beside of what it allows us to do in the school, I love its offer of freedom. In one game time day, there are classes you can attend (you don’t have to). So you can choose either to go to the class, be a good student and licking your teacher’s ass. OR you can roaming freely in the school, doing your own things, or even go to the nearest town (or perhaps village) for your own pleasure. There is no obligation or frame to follow, unless when you’re doing a mission, or errands that are asked by your friends.
While me and some thousands gamers think that the game is great, some think differently. They refuse to let this game come into the market because the nature of the game encourages its players (especially underage students or young kids) to do things like bullying, vandalism, violence, theft, etc. Or at least, they ask the game to be classified as R Rated. They are afraid that more and more students will do and follow what they can do in the game. It sounds fair though, because you can at least try to shoot those poor football players with your slingshot while they’re doing their stupid warm-up exercises. Or you can bully those skinny nerds with a reading glasses that is bigger than Oprah’s bum LOL.
However, it’s now depending on how you’re gonna see the game. For me, the game itself is a reminder for all of us that no matter what country we live in, or which school we are or were studying, the practices of bullying do exist until this minute you’re reading this. It is a very clear and blunt reminder that kids in school do these types of behaviors. So perhaps, with this game we could pick up the morale value on how we are gonna avoid such situations.
The debates around this game reminds me when “Gone In 60 Seconds” just about to have its premier screening couple of years ago. Many people also refused to have such movie in the market. The reason: it will teach the audience how to steal cars, and it is very inappropriate because it could trigger more social problems within the society. Well, if someone said that to me now, I’m gonna say “Give it a break”. It doesn’t show you exactly how to steal a Porsche that always parked next to your house. Of course in the movie, you’ll see that to access an automatic garage –the one that using a remote- you have to have a reader device to see on what frequency the garage’s automatic transmitter is operating in. C’mon, do you really think it’s gonna be that easy? It’s not a walk in the park. Even you can open the damn garage door, but do you really can handle the car’s lock?
Many movies had shown us that to open a locked door or car door, we need two little bars. Then just slight them into the hole, do some twirls, and voilà! The door is unlocked. Or a fake key that is made to copy the original one. Is it really like that? Even IF there’s a company which specializing in producing and selling such tools, unlocking a key lock won’t be that simple. At least you won’t be able to unlock it within 3 minutes or without triggering the damn alarm. For me, what in that movie was no more than a glimpse insight on the world of grand theft auto. It never actually teach you how to overcome the freaking car alarms or how to start the engine using no keys. However, on the other side, the movie itself might encourage some nitwits to try stealing cars because they think it might be cool for them to do so.
Banning a movie or video games nowadays is like mixing black and white. You’ll end up in gray area. Allow it to be sold freely in the market, then it might create a new wave of social problems. Classify it into R Rated (Adults Only), then there is still chance underage kids could access or play it. Remove it from the market, this is a big no no, with a global commerce like today including online transaction over the Internet, it is gonna be a tough job. Banned in Australia, then you still can buy it off the Net from some 40 years old
pervert nerd who still lives with his parents in a peaceful country house down in Sweden. Beside, even the game itself possess or threatened the society especially to the young teens, the budget could be spent elsewhere such as public medical services or helping homeless off the street. (Even though you can learn how to do it effectively in GTA Series *winks* hehehe)
So, even I have to admit that Canis Canem Edit does possess a chance of creating new social outcasts, but it is now up to us (adult gamers) how we are gonna handle it. We could just ignore the debating crap and keep playing, and let your 15 years old niece to play it too. OR, we can, at least try to be a responsible adult, which keeping R Rated games from the reach of young teens. Never induce them to try the game or give it as birthday or Christmas present. Maybe, with the less numbers of adults who let underage kids to play a R Rated game, indirectly we are helping and supporting the game community. Also we could still preserve our title as a gamer and our responsibility as a parents. Remember, guns don’t kill people, but people with guns do.
"Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom."
Raymonde Uy
